Scandal-Linked Lobby Firm Loses Another Client
The city council of Redlands, Calif. voted unanimously to end its relationship with Copeland Lowery, the lobby firm in the middle of the federal probe into Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA). Investigators have subpoenaed documents from Redlands as part of their investigation. The city had paid the firm $30,000 a year to help win federal money. Redlands is the fourth client in recent weeks to leave the firm. (Riverside Press-Enterprise)
Expert Calls Passages in Coulter’s ‘Godless’ Book ‘Textbook Plagiarism’
Interviewed by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, “John Barrie called three examples he found in Coulter’s book “textbook plagiarism,” as reported on Sunday by the NY Post. Barrie told Olbermann that he stopped looking after he found more than enough examples of “lifted” passages, and that many of her footnotes appeared to be in error, as well.” (Raw Story – with video)
Shreveport Paper Considers Dropping Coulter
“Craig Durrett, editorial page editor of the Shreveport (La.) Times, revealed in a column in his paper that he is considering dropping Ann Coulter as a columnist, and in fact, has “come close” before.” (E&P)
Senators Kyl and Graham’s Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Scam
Ooh. Scamming the Supreme Court – that can’t be good for the legislative soul. Check out Slate’s Emily Bazelon March piece on the ruse as well. (Findlaw)
Larry Johnson: Bank Spying Already Known to Terrorists
“If you still labor under the fantasy that the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal divulged “classified information” that put U.S. lives at risk or hampered our ability to track terrorist financial assets, you are willfully ignorant or have been living in a sensory isolation tank.” (Raw Story)
House wants Abu Ghraib Whistleblower info
“Lawmakers have issued a subpoena seeking Pentagon information on a soldier who says he suffered retaliation for reporting abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. The subpoena from the House Government Reform Committee seeks all communications relating to information provided by Army Spc. Samuel Provance about the Iraq prison, where U.S. mistreatment of detainees caused an international uproar.” (AP)
With Only A Letter, FBI Can Gather Private Data
A recent lawsuit by librarians, “only the second legal challenge to National Security Letters in their 20-year history, provides a rare public glimpse of the vast amount of banking, credit, telephone and Internet records that anti-terrorism or counterintelligence investigators can have simply by asking. National Security Letters are the key to the trove of personal data. When the law authorizing them was passed by Congress in 1986, the letters could be authorized only by a high-ranking FBI official in pursuit of an “agent of a foreign power.” (USA Today)
David Addington and ‘Hidden Power’
“Reporter Jane Mayer’s recent article in The New Yorker examines the role of David S. Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff and longtime legal adviser. Mayer says current and former Bush administration officials credit him with helping form the administration’s legal strategy in the war on terrorism.” (NPR)
